Buddy system
Two things happen here. You find the divers you have already been in the water with, and you find new buddies for the water near you or for a trip you are planning. Both run over the diver profiles, so that certification, experience and what someone likes to dive actually fit.
Every dive in your log can name who was down there with you. Months or years later, that is how you find that diver again - the one who knows the dive site, or the one you want in the water with you next time.
In your profile you name the regions you are open for - your home waters, the lake you drive to at the weekend, the coast you go back to every year. The search reads those regions, so divers looking for a buddy there find you, and you find them.
Certification, number of dives, the countries you have dived and what you are after down there - wreck, macro, deep, photography. That is what makes a buddy the right one, and it is why the profile is worth filling in properly.
Nobody is added to your buddies without being asked. You send a request, the other diver accepts or declines, and declining is a normal answer. Confirmed buddies, your open requests and the ones waiting for you are all on one page.
Certification, experience, interests, and the regions you are open for. The matching runs on this - an empty profile finds nobody and is found by nobody.
By name, if you are looking for a diver from a past dive. By region, if you want someone new for your home waters or for where you are heading.
Send the request. Once it is confirmed you can attach that buddy to a dive in your log - and that is where the next search starts.
Points come from your diving and everything around it: logged dives, a profile you keep up, your certifications, the buddy regions you name. The connections themselves are not scored - what is scored is that you keep your diving on record.
Ten per cent of your point total goes into the score of every dive centre you are a fan of. Two buddies who both follow the same centre therefore back it twice over.
A well kept profile is what makes you findable - that is the point behind the points.
From the profiles. The buddy search only shows divers who have said they are open for buddy requests, and it reads their home base and the regions they named. Certification, experience and diving interests are on the profile, so you can see before you ask whether it fits. Our goal is that the site brings such divers to you by itself.
Yes, with one click. Declining does not have to be justified.
No. A buddy noted on a dive is an entry in your own log. Your dive log stays yours.
An account, a public profile, and the note in your settings that you are open for buddy requests. Add the regions you dive in and you are findable.
Fill in your profile, look at a few divers in your region and ask somebody. The worst that can happen is a no.